Guild Wars 2

and… just bought a makeover kit yesterday and used it. I hate being that guy!

idk, is it really that tedious? I just did leathercrafting to 400 in one day. I spent a few gold to do it quick, but what other mmo can you max level a craft in a single day?

I honestly feel like crafting is done exceptionally well in this game. I’ve never had any interest in crafting in any game before GW2, and here I have 3 max crafts, with a 4th in progress. It’s cheap, quick, and rewarding. The only improvement I’d like to see is for them to somehow make it profitable… but I have no idea how they could do that without time-gating everything. Every MMO I’ve ever played had horrible crafting mechanics, where it was actually profitable for the fewest of the few who could buy or cheat their way to the top to monopolize it….. so I’ll take GW2’s avenue every time, where it’s fun, easy, rewarding through exp and craftables, but financially not worth the effort. This way I actually did some of it.

I think the devious thing about buying gems in this game, is it really is the easiest way to get things you want, and by far. When the game started out it felt a little more balanced in terms of farming vs. buying gems. The Scarlett invasions are just an illusion, because the inflation they caused actually makes it even better to drop 10 bucks here and there because gem values are tied to the value of gold, while static prices of items like T3 armor, elonian wine, tools and salvage kits, waypoints, etc. remain the same.

I would say you should definitely try it. You already bought the game and there’s no monthly fee… if your PC can handle it then why not? Its all about finding what you enjoy doing. Sometimes it amazes me that people are so negative about this game, but if it inspires improvements to the game then it really doesn’t work against the playerbase to act that way I guess.

This was a good post. Lots of good criticisms of the game in there… definitely a good read for any dev involved in the game. Even if you disagree with some parts, its definitely thought provoking.

That is definitely a part of it too. There are some things about GW2 that just feel wrong. The zhaitan fight is horrendous, for example. Its the biggest fight of game, built up through the whole story, and then….. that. There are still gaps in the mission where they took the mobs out. So you’re just sitting on a ship, flying… for like, literally minutes. Not even fighting anything. And then you never even fight the dragon. They’ve got all these epic fights against dragons in game, and they couldn’t instance one? Hell, the claw island fight was better than the final battle. And your reward is a rare weapon. Actually the end cinematics and everybody cheering for you is really well done. But one of the NPC’s in the instance where you pick up your rare weapon has a spelling error in her text and spells the word just like "jsut"or something, and your just like… seriously? Also, the lack of player housing is pathetic. I mean, c’mon. Assassins creed has player housing, GTA has player housing, and they’re console games. ffxi had player housing and it came out in 2004.

Oops…… there I go again, acting dissatisfied! I better go have some coffee.

I don’t know if we’re spoiled necessarily. I just think that there are a lot of really unhappy human beings that gravitate towards MMO’s. I definitely have seen in the past in my own life that when I was unhappy or depressed about something, MMO’s became less about entertainment and more about escaping reality. This didn’t solve the problem however, so it got worse and worse.

GW2 is actually the first MMO that I’ve ever played that couldn’t be classified as an addiction or a coping mechanism, and unfortunately (for me), that’s probably due more to the way its designed than my maturity as a human being. Of course, on a personal level I’m a dad now, so my wife would kill me if I allowed one of the hardcore MMO’s to get under my skin again.

That all being said, I see a lot of the unhappy, argumentative, dissatisfied whining going on in GW2 that I was guilty of during my years of MMO addiction. It takes one to know one, as the saying goes.

I’m thinking that too. There have been multiple guild hall/personal housing threads in the past week, and the question has been posed to devs regularly at their live events recently. They’ve listened to us in the past when things came up regularly, so hopefully this is no different and we see something soon.

That would have to be a pretty cluttered table. I heard the way it originated was, Colin was sitting at the table eating lunch. He gets up to leave without throwing out his trash. The rest of the dev team is sitting there, and Mike Z goes, “Hey Colin, could you clean up your garbage? Everybody’s getting tired of you leaving your stuff here every day.” Colin just looks him dead in the eyes and says, “Mike…… NOTHING comes off the table.” And then he just walks out into the sunset.

Well, my take on it is this. Imagine that there’s a table. Then imagine that everything, and I mean EVERYTHING, is on that table. That’s what it means.

I like some music from other video games, such as the game “Journey”, some of the diablo and halo music, gears of war 2, etc….. You know what really fits great though is the soundtrack from the movie “Life of Pi”. I haven’t even seen that movie but the soundtrack is great for GW2.

I came to a realization recently… essentially it boils down to this. GW2 is a casual MMO specifically in comparison to other, older MMO’s. It might not be 100% casual across its entire range of content. I personally feel that is a good thing because it gives you something to work on in the game without sucking your life away, but that’s just my opinion.

I dunno.. I was attracted to GW2 because the devs just seemed to “get it”. Their manifesto was a refreshing change of attitude. Some people may feel like they didn’t live up to it, while others feel they did. Those things weren’t important to me…. what mattered is that they seemed to have the sincere goal of providing the most player-friendly mmo experience ever designed. People will debate their successes and failures for years, but what you can’t deny is that they are aiming for something uniquely exciting here. It might not be to everyone’s taste all the time, but when they hit their mark, its some of the best gaming ever designed.

It’s hard to go wrong with new dyes. I don’t really like the way they’re sold with the RNG being such a factor though… and I actually did manage to get a Charred Dye out of a molten dye kit. The way I see it, it’s a fun thing to do with a few bucks if you want to take a chance. If the dyes are really something you want, just save up the money for it…. if you want to play the wheel of RNG chance, give it a roll. It’s the flip side of the coin when you have no monthly fees, imo.

Whenever this comes up, I just think to myself that there has never been an MMO that is easier to play at your convenience than GW2.

I feel like guild halls would be a lot of fun. Instead of roaming around the world crafting or using the TP with hordes of people you’ll never see or interact with again, youll be doing those things with guildies, building familiarity and actual relationships and friendships in the game. Building a community is what the devas have been striving for, is it not? Its not enough that we don’t have to compete for things. You see somebody once at an event among 40 others, and that’s it. But when you see somebody at the same place everyday, you build something more substantial. I remember an mmo I played years ago, and the happiest memories I have of it are a brief time when me and a few others would sit in the same place and chat every day. It only lasted a few months before they all quit, but I used to go back to that place every once in a while and somebody from that group would be there out of the blue… best experience in a gaming community I ever had. I think that’s what people are missing in GW2.

Guild halls and player housing are pretty much my only real wish for this game. But I guess how they implement them is a big concern for Colin and company. TBH, I feel like they could easily put something together to fill that void. In other games, just having a room to manipulate the environment of and store trophies in was enough for me. However, it sounds like they want to do something unique. They’ve shown us that they’re more than willing to retroactively reward us for things, so I guess there’s no concern that we won’t be rewarded with trophies once they develop these things.

Yeah I totally agree! Dark souls was a game that comes to mind. The dark environments in that game are rediculously awesome. Alot of the online games I’ve played have gotten progressively deeper and darker, so there’s still hope! Maybe they’ll “update” the legendary unicorn shooter to fire decapitated quaggan heads or something. That would be a fun little surprise.

yeah i’m having trouble with this one too. I’m 9/10 on achievements and I’ve spent the last two straight fights dodging… didn’t even get it when the “evaded” word pops up on screen.

Right now I’m running straight zerk exotics, with 5/6 superior rune of Lyssa and a Ruby Orb in the 6th armor slot. I’ve got ascended rings & necklace, with one more ascended accessory to get, and a rare back slot. I’m not so sure if the Lyssa runes are the best or not, but I spent a bunch of money on them a while back so I haven’t really looked into it yet tbh.

Thanks for the responses! Sounds like it’s not really worth it. I’ll probably just start working on leathercrafting to get a ascended shortbow or something instead.

Hey guys,

I was wondering if anybody could help me out. My question is, what is the statistical increase in damage going from 1 ascended dagger with an exotic dagger off-hand, to 2 ascended daggers. I’m trying to decide if it’s worth making a second ascended dagger or if I should just stick with the one I have finished.

What I’m really wondering is how the stats on the offhand dagger effect the overall damage output. Technically you’re doing damage with your main hand on most of your swings, but I’m not really sure how the off-hand damage numbers are calculated. Do they only effect the damage done when you swing your offhand dagger, or do they boost your overall damage output no matter what hand you’re swinging with?

Thanks very much to anybody that can help me out!

I like Scarlett! She’s a little bit crazier and more maniacal than your typical cookie-cutter villain. I’m glad they’re giving the Sylvari a little bit more attention too. I’ve never played one and they’re by far my least favorite race personally, but that’s mostly because they’re so underdeveloped in the overall lore. I want to see some more human god action, but it seems like they won’t get around to that until they impress upon us the fact that the other races are important too… so bring on the salad heads! Lets get them out of the way so we can do some fun stuff with the Norn awesomeness, the human gods, or maybe the eternal alchemy.

I love my Thief! 25% speed boost signet, stealth for losing aggro, and melee/ranged options. It’s pretty good. Honestly any job with a 25% speed boost would be worth playing, I just happened to try thief first out of the jobs that have it. A bit more defense would be nice, and a longer range on shortbow’s AOE attack for tagging mobs… but in general it’s the best job for overall mobility. In a game like GW2 where 99% of the time you don’t really need a specific job to be successful because you’re with a group of people, mobility is the best thing in the world to me for overall ease of play.

Or use the wiki or YouTube instead

Yeah there’s an interview on YouTube given by MattVisual… I think that’s his name. Check it out! Its a half hour long with some really great info.

I think Colin said at Pax that guild halls and player housing is something they’re actively working on, and that it’s somewhat at the top of the priority list. He also added that they could have just thrown something together and tossed it in the game, but that wouldn’t be consistent with their vision for GW2.

In theory this sounds like exactly what you would hope to hear from a dev, but the fact that we don’t have these yet is the only glaring shortcoming GW2 has (in my opinion). Hopefully we’ll get something a little more concrete one of these days.

Looks amazing! Hope all the weapons have the same effect.

Heh, I just went to look what the weapon I want looks like… its amazing! I guess I’m glad a cool color matches the stats I want… lolz

In a weird way the OP strikes a chord with me. When you have all of these cool skins at exotic level and below, and only one style of ascended skins, you’re pretty much out of luck if you want the strongest weapon but don’t like the skin available for that tier. I’ve been thinking lately that ascended weapons are the best that many people will get, so there should be somehow more styles and the freedom to choose them. Or something.

I’d be annoyed if they added ascended gear and created new content that you needed it for, or you couldn’t be successful. As it stands, I like it. MMO’s need something to progress on. They’ve mentioned ascended and legendary tiers being added to the game, and currently the legendary tier is even stat-wise. Its almost impossible to think of a more horizontal progression than that. Just think… 5 years from now these weapons that take a couple weeks to make will still be the top weapons potentially. Not even that, but they found a purpose for blues and greens as well… I would have been content just vendoring them, and now you even have a choice on what to do with your useless crap. Seems like a great set of concepts to me.

This is a really interesting article for a variety of reasons. It really shows the intelligence and care that has gone into designing this game. There are really alot of things that he says that hit me as, “wow… I didn’t really consider that.” I’m not sure if that means they missed the mark, being a player and having experienced it without the intended effect, or if it means I just overlooked the big picture on how fantastic this game really is and missed something. The second is quite possibly the case, as in many times past. The artist or creator often is the greatest judge of their own work. Look at the mona lisa! It isn’t considered the best because people saw it and immediately thought it was…. it’s considered the best because Da Vinci declared it his best work and carried it with him in his back pocket during his life.

Perfect example… Mike’s idea is that the two week schedule of updates and horizontal progression are ideal because they don’t fragment the player base. It’s very true….. they don’t. However, they also have the side effect of putting all of the players in the same places, at the same times. Which means on a technical scale, tons of lag… but also on a “experience” scale, it means that we’re all kind of stuck doing the newest thing with everyone else. I guess no design is completely perfect. Yet… the two week schedule is incredibly exciting. I constantly find myself thinking about what has just happened, or what might happen next. The experience of it is almost not nearly as thrilling as the constant anticipation, or the satisfaction of having experienced something new. So he’s definitely right about that, and in a way I hadn’t considered.

If there was one thing I could try to explain to him, it’s this….. YES, you have done some amazing things. Yes, this is the best MMO I’ve ever played and I personally believe the best that has ever been designed. BUT…. there are some things from previous games that are worthy of emulation. An important point to consider is that people played those games for a reason, and it wasn’t because they totally sucked in every possible way and we’re a bunch of MMO fan masochists. It’s because of awesome things like guild halls. It’s because of awesome things like personal housing instances where you could manipulate the creation of an environment and display your achievements. It’s because of awesome things like exploring new zones. These are some of the things that brought people into the MMO worlds of gaming’s past, despite those many things that you have improved upon such as the gear grind. Please don’t throw the baby out the window with the bath water! Those are great opportunities for you to grow this game.

That is all! Great first year, and I can’t wait to see what’s next. He’s got one thing right for certain… it’s an exciting game to be a player of and I personally can’t wait to experience it.

I think it’s going to be minor. Didn’t one of the devs say that it was previewing September updates? Probably the next adventure box thingy, maybe at most a look at the precursor scavenger hunt, or the next tier of crafting and the new ascended weapons or something. I hope it’s huge, like a new map, guild halls, or personal homes, but that doesn’t seem to be the way they’re working things.

The devs actually listen to their player base, so its good to bring up guild halls from time to time so they don’t forget about them! The irony is, they probably get more complaints directed at them because they do actually give us what we want from time to time.

I’m using the Tier 3 body, legs, and feet, with invisible head & shoulders, and the CoE hands. It looks freaking great together, colors are Abyss main with accents of white and teal.

I just think it’s because they made a ton of money (fastest selling MMO, etc.) , and yet there’s no guild housing, no personal housing, no expansion in the works, no good use of GW1’s historical lore with focus instead on dragons, etc. It’s a great game, don’t get me wrong. I love it! I think we’re all waiting for it to live up to the potential though. GW2 sets a really high bar for itself.

After reading all the comments about karma farming for orrian boxes, I think I’m actually starting to understand why they did this. Who knew this was such a valuable commodity? Some guy even said he funded the better part of a legendary with max boostterms and buying boxes? Jeez.

Anything you stockpile in an MMO is a gamble. It’s always been that way in every MMO since forever… same goes for GW2. If you stockpile Ectos, maybe they introduce a new tier of legendaries that don’t require them, or higher rare item salvage or drop rates, and ectos lose half their value. People with a ton of ectos will be kitten ed, guaranteed. If you stockpile gold, maybe they introduce higher drop rates which leads to inflation and your gold loses it’s value. Same goes for karma, laurels, achievement points, anything obtainable in quantity over time. You can see they’re gradually moving newer armor/weapons towards new methods of achievement. If you weren’t aware before, consider this a relatively minor learning experience!

That stuff is so useless most people don’t even wait for buffs to open it anymore.

I think its pretty easy to see that the majority of voices on the forums are whiners. Just look at the number of whiny posts and threads, versus the number of people complaining in game in map chat. In here its much more accepted by others, whereas in game the complainers are told to shut up. Its like in real life.. if somebody is complaining you might tell them to shut up, but you wouldn’t go into a room down the hall and tell a group of whiners to shut up, because its not worth the hassle. Like it or not, official forums are where people go to kitten. Anet was actually smart to allow official forums, because it keeps all the kittening in one place.

Necro and mesmer are both great, and ranger supposedly is pretty good now. Me personally, I picked mine based on innate movement speed. Its the one thing in this game that has a constant effect on the efficiency of whatever you’re doing.

Portals are most useful in WvW, so I don’t think its such a big deal. Movement speed is strange in this game though. It really makes no sense. The deciding factor when I picked thief was that signet… I rolled a mesmer first and couldn’t believe such a popular job had no movement speed, and switched to thief. 90% of any MMO is running around.

Holy crap, a sensible person. Be still my heart.

These are interesting observations. OP, I think you would really enjoy WWW.nickyee.com, its right up your alley. Especially the Daedalus project he worked on a few years back.

That being said, I honestly believe that GW2 is by far the greatest MMO of all time, when it comes to giving you the ability to choose not to play and focus on real life. Any game that keeps your attention for literally years, MUST have a hook. GW2’s is so nice in that it allows you to play as often or as little as you are able to from one week to the next. I probably would not be gaming right now if it wasn’t for this game’s design allowing for that.

One cool thing about the two week event schedule is they can balance stuff from one release to the next. If we’ve got a heavy farming time right now because of good loot, maybe the next one will have the opposite. Although, easier farming follows the trend that typical MMO’s will have before new stuff is released… which we’re about to see with the new ascended gear and crafting tier.

Lol… the answer to the OP’s question is yes. Yes they are.

Yeah i’m stuck at 15/16 as well. Maybe I’ll try the daily tonight…

edit: nvmd… just counted the achievements up and there’s only 13 total, so you HAVE to do some of the dailies. Didn’t realize that before.

yeah i think thief is the only job that doesn’t have a 1200 ranged attack, so idk about thief’s AOE being all that great.

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Back in WoW (during the burning crusade expansion), one of my favorite dungeon bosses mind controlled your party, so from time to time you lost control of your characters and they started fighting each other

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haha yeah, ffxi had something like that too. One of my fondest memories from my years of playing that game was getting charmed and chasing a friend of mine around with a great katana, yelling in chat “you better run! I’m going to get you!” As he swore back at me. Good times.

I must have missed that. Did they say they’re not working on it??